Praised be Jesus Christ! Brothers and Sisters, Family, Friends and Distinguished Guests, What a joy it is to be here with all of you and thank you for coming ...read more

A lovely, if often overlooked, element in preparation for the sacrament of marriage as a Catholic is the Rite of Betrothal offered by the Church. My fiancé and I were thrilled by the opportunity to participate in this rite in the midst of our engagement and wedding planning. If you are unfamiliar, the Rite of ...read more

Last time I tried to make a case for reading Scripture. Our faith teaches that, not only should we read and study Scripture, but we should pray with Scripture. When I was growing up in the 70s, this was not taught in Catechism class. Although, come to think of it, it’s not like anyone taught ...read more

About 15 years ago, I decided to read the Bible cover to cover. Not that I hadn’t read the Bible before: of course I had – in spurts. In fact, the Bible that my Mom gave me when I left home at 16 is almost all underlined, with scribbles on the margins and falling apart, ...read more

For the last two weeks (part 1 and part 2) I’ve been trying to imagine what our world would be like had Jesus never been born. It’s easy to say that The Church would not exist or that we would have no Pope. There would be no priests, deacons, religious sisters or brothers, nor there ...read more

Last week I was imagining a world without Christmas. That would mean no Christmas music and no Christmas movies. But a world without Jesus would mean much more to our popular culture. One of my favourite Broadway musicals is Les Miz. I never read the novel, Les Miserables by Victor Hugo and wasn’t crazy about ...read more

Read the full text of Pope Francis' homily for the Solemnity of Mary, Mother of God, and the 55th World Day of Peace on January 1, 2022. ...read more

? Do you ever get the feeling that you’re not in control of your life? So often we can try to take the driver’s seat, to be in charge of where we’re heading. We can be unsettled when something unexpected happens or disappointed when things don’t go our way. It’s a normal part of being ...read more

I remember once, a Cuban friend who grew up in Cuba with no Christmas, telling me that she had never seen or heard of a Christmas tree before she left Cuba. But had Christ never been born, the implications would be much worse than not having Christmas trees. Just think of the music we’d be ...read more

But it's hard to escape the baggage of Christmas. It’s usually about this time that I start thinking about all the people who get lonely at Christmas. It’s true. This holiday reminds us of family, of our childhood and many people don’t have that, or have issues to reconcile or a past that they would rather not remember. Secular Christmas brings all that to the forefront. ...read more